A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency vehicle sits parked at Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. on May 27,2026, where a chemical disaster occurred May 26, 2026, leaving two confirmed dead and nine missing and presumed dead, at the Longview, Wash., plant for kraft pulp, paper mill and liquid packaging. Washington Gov. Ferguson called it the “deadliest industrial tragedy in modern Washington state history.”
Eli Imadali / OPB
The Longview paper mill disaster is expected to be Washington’s deadliest workplace accident in nearly a century.
Officials have so far confirmed that two people died Tuesday, when a massive chemical tank ruptured at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co., releasing tens of thousands of gallons of corrosive chemicals.
Nine other people were missing as an investigation continued Thursday. They are presumed dead.
At a news conference in the southwest Washington community, Gov. Bob Ferguson said Wednesday that officials expected it to be “the deadliest industrial tragedy in modern Washington state history.”
Much remains unclear as officials begin the process of recovering victims’ bodies from the mill. But the workplace tragedy appears more severe than any other since the days of coal mine disasters decades ago.
- In 1892, 45 people died in a Northern Pacific coal mine explosion in Roslyn in the eastern foothills of the Cascade mountains in Central Washington.
- In 1894, 37 people died in a fire at the Oregon Improvement Co. coal mine near Black Diamond in King County.
- In 1895, 23 people died in the Blue Canyon coal mine explosion on the southeast shores of Lake Whatcom near Bellingham.
- In 1899, 33 people died in the Wingate Hill coal mine explosion in Carbonado in the Cascade foothills below Mount Rainier.
- In 1909, 10 people died in the Northwestern Improvement Co. coal mine explosion in Roslyn in Kittitas County.
- In 1910, 61 Great Northern Rail employees and 35 train passengers died in an avalanche near Stevens Pass.
- In 1930, 17 people died in the Pacific Coast coal mine explosion in Carbonado in Pierce County.
- (In 1943, 32 people died in the Lake Forest Sanitarium fire in King County, but they were residents and not workers so it is not considered a workplace disaster.)
- In 1963, seven people died in a sugar-dust explosion at the Utah-Idaho Sugar Co. factory in Moses Lake in Grant County.
- In 1998, six people died in the Equilon Refinery fire in Anacortes.
- In 2010, seven people died in the Tesoro Refinery explosion in Anacortes.
KUOW’s John Ryan contributed this list of Washington state workplace disasters. Sourcing includes the Washington Department of Labor and Industries and HistoryLink.
